Many products of a particulate matter are packaged within a flexible bag. The flexible bag can be inside a supportive container to maintain the shape of the bag and to protect the bag and products during transport to form a package assembly. These products include cat litter, foods, and aggregate, for example.
In the packaging process of the product, it has been found more efficient to place the bag within the supportive container and then fill the bag with the product, rather than vice versa. To ensure the bag stays open while it is being filled with product, the top portion of the bag can be folded over the open top of the container, thereby forming a cuff.
A problem remains in how to quickly and efficiently uncuff the bag from the end of the container and to close the end of the bag while the bag is inside the container. In one known process, the container moves along a conveyor in an assembly line to a first workstation, where it is stopped. At the first workstation, robotic arms pull the top portion upward, thereby uncuffing the bag from the container. The robotic arms are then clapped about the top portion, thereby attempting to gather the top portion together, and push down against the top of the bag, thereby attempting to remove excess air from the bag.
The conveyor then moves the container to a second workstation. A clip applicator gathers the top portion together, and applies a retaining clip to the top portion of the bag, thereby closing the top portion.
The conveyor then moves the container to a third workstation, where the container is again stopped. A second set of robotic arms tamps the bag down such that it is substantially inside the confines of the box.
In this design, the container must be stopped at the workstations while the robotic arms perform their tasks. This slows down the entire process, lowers the output that may be achieved, and can be a bottleneck in the production process. Further, the robotic arms are expensive and require maintenance, repair, and employee training. It would be beneficial to increase the speed of the uncuffing and closing process and would be further beneficial to improve the reliability and cost of the process.
While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrative embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the disclosure to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and the equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.